Local Republicans praise efforts of law enforcement at GOP convention

Beyond the speeches and political fanfare at the Republican National Convention, another element of the Cleveland event caught the attention of Cape Girardeau County participants: security.

Police officers were everywhere, including many on bicycles and horses. Motorcycle riders for GOP nominee Donald Trump also turned out by the thousands with a goal of assisting police, if needed.

The goal: prevent violent and disruptive protests. Local Republicans who attended the convention said the security efforts proved to be a success.

State Rep. Kathy Swan, an alternate delegate to the convention, said there was a huge police presence, including officers from other states. The Missouri State Highway Patrol sent 25 troopers to help, the Cape Girardeau Republican said. California provided more than 300 officers, she said.

Concrete barricades blocked key streets and intersections downtown. Fences surrounded the arena where delegates assembled, and police helicopters flew over the city.

About 600 Cleveland officers were assigned to convention security duty along with thousands of officers from other state and federal agencies, according to media reports.

Swan said she and other GOP convention-goers were not inconvenienced by the security. She said the officers were polite and courteous.

“Everywhere we went, they were extremely friendly,” Swan said. “It went extremely smoothly.”

The Missouri delegation was housed in a hotel in Akron, Ohio, which was about a 30-minute bus ride from Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena that served as the convention hall. Known as “The Q,” it is listed as the third-largest arena in the National Basketball Association.

Swan said officers rode the delegation buses and were present at hotels where delegates stayed.

Swan said she and other delegates walked through a “wall of law-enforcement officers on both sides of the walkway” by the convention hall.

Swan said she was impressed by the “sheer size” of the arena. Everything was large, from the video screen on stage to the balloons that rained down at the end of the four-day event, she said.

Many delegates dressed in red, white and blue attire.

“You see all sorts of hats,” she said, adding the headwear included a hat with elephant ears and others with sequins.

One person even wore socks depicting the American flag — red and white on one sock and blue with white stars on the other.

“This is an opportunity to be very patriotic,” said Swan, although she admitted her attire was far less flashy.

This was Swan’s second convention. She said the convention crowd was enthusiastic on the concluding night of the convention when Trump gave his acceptance speech. She and other local Republicans at the convention praised Trump’s speech in which he vowed he would make the nation safe again and curb illegal immigration.

State representative and alternate delegate Donna Lichtenegger of Jackson said she saw some of the bikers who showed up in Cleveland to support Trump. Lichtenegger said she and other convention participants appreciated the security efforts of police.

“They could feel the love,” she said.

Lichtenegger met the convention stage designer. She said the stage was designed to represent “the Oval Office” in the White House, and the huge side walls were intended to depict the steel industry in Ohio.

The 2016 convention was Lichtenegger’s fourth.

“It was the first time I wasn’t on the floor,” she said. Alternate delegates were seated in an elevated area farther away from the stage.

Lichtenegger said she and others in her section actually had a better view of the proceedings from a video monitor than those down on the floor of the convention.

“We could actually hear the speeches better,” she said.

Lichtenegger said a power outage occurred after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech Wednesday night. All of the monitors went out, she said, adding it affected the stage microphone, too, making it harder to hear Indiana governor and vice presidential nominee Mike Pence’s speech later in the evening.

Lichtenegger later used social media to catch up on Pence’s remarks.

“I actually watched Pence’s speech on YouTube,” she said.

Lichtenegger liked Trump’s speech.

“I did think it was interesting that he didn’t make a big deal about the wall,” she said. Trump repeatedly has vowed, if elected, to build a wall on the nation’s southern border in an effort to keep out people from entering the country illegally.

Jackson Republican Holly Lintner, executive director of the National Federation of Pachyderm Clubs, attended the convention as a guest of the Republican National Committee.

She, too, saw the heavy police presence. Many of the police officers rode bicycles.

“There were hundreds of them,” she said. “There were lots of cops on horses. I always felt safe.”

Some of the convention delegates wore eye-catching attire. “There was a woman from Wisconsin who wore a cheesehead helmet with a camo dress with ‘Army Mom’ on it.”

But the predominate colors mirrored the American flag.

“It was just red, white and blue everywhere you looked,” Lintner said.

While not a convention activity, Lintner said one of her trip highlights was visiting the “A Christmas Story” house that has been restored.

The home, which is open to the public, displays original props, costumes and memorabilia from the popular holiday film. “I saw a replica of the leg lamp,”

Lintner called Trump’s speech “awesome.”

As for the balloon drop that concluded the convention, Lintner said, “it went on forever.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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